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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913138">Red</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/demuname/pseuds/demuname'>demuname</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night &amp; Related Fandoms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Prose Poem, kind of</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:08:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913138</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/demuname/pseuds/demuname</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was red, the colour of his demise and saviour, his beginning and his end.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Emiya Kiritsugu/Irisviel von Einzbern</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Red</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Red<br/>Original Fate/Zero fanfic by demuname<br/>Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/Zero.</p><p>A short, simple fic retelling Kiritsugu's story through eyes of the colour red. Romance is not the main element of this fic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>It was red that grazed her along with the grounds as she trembled amongst dead birds, holding a knife in her hand.</em>
</p><p>She threw the knife in front of him, biting her wrist until it bled just to maintain her alternating consciousness, begging for him to kill her. </p><p>His eyes widened, and his mouth dried up at the sight of her. His heartbeat picked up its pace, and he could feel his body trembling. His grip on the silver knife tightened, holding it until his knuckles turned white. </p><p>
  <em>She was still Shirley, wasn't she? What was happening? </em>
</p><p>There was no way Kiritsugu could have the heart to fulfil such a wish coming from her mouth. She was his best friend, his family-</p><p>And so, he ran and ran as far as he could, screaming for anyone's help, just to see the people around him turning into something like her. The look on their eyes were blank, and they were bleeding all over. As they tried to lay a hand on his body, Kiritsugu realised that he was prey to their predatory instinct, and the only way to stay alive was to run as far as he could from the village. They were no longer the people he came to know about.</p><p>Gunshots and sounds of slashing could be heard in the background as he met Natalia, a woman who saved his life. By meeting her, he came to understand what his father was doing. He raced back into his mansion to see him about to flee, irresponsible for the villagers' fate.</p><p>It was <em>cruel</em>, how he had the heart to sacrifice hundreds of lives just for the sake of himself.</p><p>He found newfound courage to stop this cycle as Kiritsugu stabbed his father and shot him to death. His own father was the first blood that he had in his hands. He no longer had any relatives, and he decided to follow Natalia wherever she went.</p><p>
  <em>It was the colour red he had last seen before he left the island for good - the colour of his father's blood and the flames that engulfed the village into ashes.</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>It was red that soaked their clothes as bullets pierced into their flesh, draining their blood out from their bodies and led them to their death. </em>
</p><p>Raised by a hunter to become one himself, he had long made peace with the gruesome sight of human flesh. </p><p>He embedded the memory of <em>that day </em>into his mind, the sight of the village when he looked down from the hill. It was an incident that he could prevent if only he had listened to her. The iron heart and courage he lacked that day led the whole village into demise, leading him to believe that the hesitation inside his heart should be eliminated to prevent history from happening again.</p><p>After all, there was no possibility of seeing either side clean from blood - to maintain the purity of one side, the other must be stained. It was either majority or minority. He killed hundreds of lives for the sake of thousands. The blood in his hands was needed as a sacrifice for the greater good.</p><p>
  <em>It was the colour red of their blood - his friend, his father, his foster mother; the blood of the people he had once held dear inside his soul.</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>It was red when he looked into her eyes once upon a snowy day.</em>
</p><p>The bright red radiated colour into her pale skin and white hair, yet it was void of any kind of emotions. She was no human, worth nothing more than a tool, a creation made to fulfil a purpose. She lacked an understanding of the world, and he was sure that she wouldn’t survive a day in the real world. </p><p>Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to ignore her when she was left freezing outside of the mansion. He took her in, teaching her the ways of the world and human interaction. In time, she started to understand human emotions, and they even fell in love. Her name was Irisviel von Einzbern.</p><p>The Einzberns asked him to marry into their family. After some time, she conceived a child named Illyasviel. It was a beautiful name for his beautiful baby, a daughter he had never imagined having. </p><p>Holding her in his arms, a warm feeling engulfed his chest. Kiritsugu made a wish that day. He wanted to see her grow up as he grew old to see her bright smile radiating his world.</p><p>
  <em>It was the colour red of their eyes, his wife and daughter who he loved. He would do anything to protect them, as long as fate allowed him to.</em>
</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>It was red, the colour of the pouring Grail and the fire burning the city.</em>
</p><p>Amidst the fire and destruction, he walked, limp on his legs, desperately to find any signs of living. Wrecked buildings, stones, and debris had impinged the victims and left them dying in blood.</p><p>He was tired. He was frantic. He was <em>desperate</em>.</p><p>Kiritsugu’s final self-control had finally crumbled, leaving only his vulnerable, broken self into view. He had dedicated his life just to live up to his ideals, to be betrayed by it every time he killed someone, and clung into a naïve hope of fulfilling his wish with the Grail, just to be betrayed once again. </p><p>All of the things he had fought and longed for were, in the end, shattered ruthlessly. All of his sacrifices - Shirley, his father, Natalia, Irisviel, Illya, and countless people; both guilty and innocent - were for nothing. Only regrets and guilt that was left and remained within him.</p><p>
  <em>There was no such thing called justice in this world. It was nothing but lies, a dream that was built by the feelings of a young boy who had only wanted to save the people close to his heart.</em>
</p><p>As the rain fell and tuned out Kiritsugu’s scream and tears, he spotted a small body lying on the ground, and he rushed towards the body- </p><p>
  <em>There’s someone, there’s someone….</em>
</p><p>And when he touched him, the boy opened his eyes.</p><p>
  <em>He’s breathing, he’s alive, he’s alive, oh, thankfully he’s still alive…</em>
</p><p>With his trembling hands, he held the boy’s hand. Tears were falling from his eyes while he smiled, chanting countless ‘thank you’ to him.</p><p><em>Thank you for being alive. Thank you for surviving. Thank you for allowing me to save your life.</em> <em>Thank you for giving me a chance to fix my mistakes.</em></p><p>Through this boy, he was finally able to find the happiness and peace that he yearned for when Shirou’s eyes shone with the reassurance of his childhood dream, under the moonlight once upon a time.</p><p>
  <em>It was the colour red of his hair that saved his soul from its own destruction by the embodiment of his lifelong dream, something that could never be fulfilled in an unfair world that was unknown to justice.</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thank you for stopping by!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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